As cliche as it might sound, it is a "There is no tomorrow" game for the Buckeyes because, well, there isn't.

The 11-0 Buckeyes will play their final game of the season today against its most disliked rival, the Michigan Wolverines.

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Win, and Ohio State has the 12-0 season it aimed for when the season started.

Lose, and the Buckeyes settle for 11-1 and head into the bowl-less month of December with a tinge of regret while the Wolverines keep alive their BCS bowl game hopes.

So yeah, there's a lot riding on this game.

"This is the Super Bowl," senior linebacker Etienne Sabino said. "This is the bowl game. This is the national championship. This is everything for us."

Michigan's football program is pretty good at spoiling undefeated seasons against Ohio State, defeating five undefeated teams from OSU over the seasons -- 1969, 1973, 1993 and 1995 and 1996.

Ohio State has dashed Michigan's hopes for an unbeaten season five times, also -- 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 2006.

Ohio State's undefeated record -- they are one of two unbeaten teams left (the other being Notre Dame -- puts more focus on this edition of the OSU-Michigan rivalry. But Sabino said records won't matter when the Buckeyes and Wolverines hit the field.

"I think it is what college football is all about. The two biggest schools and crazy fans on both ends," Sabino said. "Two great teams. It's college football at its finest. The fans are going crazy and you also have the respect-slash-hatred for each other, in a sports sense it is the epitome of college football."

Ohio State is still smarting a little from last year's game, in which Michigan defeated the Buckeyes, 40-34, at Michigan Stadium. A late rally by the Buckeyes fell short when then-freshman Braxton Miller barely overthrew senior DeVier Posey on a long pass pattern, forcing OSU to swallow a six-point loss as part of a bitter 6-7 season.

The returners from that OSU team, particularly the seniors who returned for the final years, haven't forgotten that game.

"It wasn't our game," defensive back Orhian Johnson said. "It wasn't the kind of game we wanted to go out there and play. They definitely won, and that's the situation that happened, but we aren't the same team anymore and they aren't the same team anymore, so I'm looking forward to seeing the battle."

The game has the potential of being a shootout.

Ohio State enters the game averaging 426 yards and 38 points per game. The Buckeyes struggled through a 21-14 overtime win at Wisconsin last Saturday. Coach Urban Meyer said the goal this week against the Wolverines would be to "open things up" offensively.

Michigan comes into the game averaging 395 yards and 30.8 points per game. However, the Wolverines (8-3, 6-1) will not play in the Big Ten Championship Game next Saturday after Nebraska clinched the Legends Division title on Friday.

Ohio State's defense has given up only seven touchdowns over the past four game. The Wolverines' offensive game plan for this weekend remains a mystery, with senior Denard Robinson returning from an arm injury to play more of a running role last week with Devin Gardner doing the throwing part in the Wolverines' offense.

Sabino feels the OSU defense is geared to handle whatever is thrown at them.

"I think we will be fine," Sabino said. "We've gotten a lot more disciplined with our techniques and just getting back to tackling. That's helped us to get to where we are now. We have to keep doing that if we want to win this game."

In seasons past, the OSU-Michigan game served as a springboard into the bowl season. When the Buckeyes defeated the Wolverines, the momentum was carried over into the three weeks of December practice that led to the bowl game.

When the Buckeyes came up short against the Wolverines, it served as a motivator to improve during December practices, with a chance at redeeming themselves somewhat in the bowl game.

No bowl game on this horizon this year means Ohio State is heaping a lot into Saturday's game.

"We don't control who we play, we don't control how many games we play in a year. We do what we're supposed to do," senior linebacker Zach Boren said. "We've taken each week one week at a time and taken care of business and that's all we can control.

"I think it is kind of unique that my last college game is against the team up north. It should be fun."